Kaylee McKeown Trying to Defy History in Quest for Olympic Repeat
Whatever the occasion, whatever the level of meet in which she is competing, Kaylee McKeown is a threat to produce one of the fastest swims in history. Her all-the-time sizzle is unusual among elite swimmers who tend to focus on major qualification and championship meets, but McKeown began this run as competitions resumed in late 2020 as she scared world records at seemingly-inconsequential meets before finally breaking the 100 backstroke mark at Australia’s Olympic Trials in June 2021.
At the Tokyo Olympics, McKeown did not hit her best times, but it did not matter, as her signature finishing speed produced double backstroke gold, the first such sweep since Romania’s Diana Mocanu pulled one off at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Since then, McKeown has continued that pattern of everyday greatness and stepping up when it matters. She is undefeated in international finals in the 100 and 200 back since before Tokyo, and in between her world-title wins over American rival Regan Smith in the 100 back and 200 back in July, McKeown touched out Smith for gold in the 50 back as well. Those three gold medals in Fukuoka, Japan, made the 22-year-old Aussie the first woman to win all three distances in one stroke at a World Championships.
Also this year, McKeown finally snatched the 200 back world record, clocking 2:03.14 at the New South Wales Championships in March, and this weekend at a World Cup meet in Athens, McKeown nearly grabbed the 50 back record, her time of 27.02 coming up just four hundredths short of Liu Xiang’s 26.98. One day later, McKeown swam a 100 back time of 57.63 that was less than two tenths off her own world record of 57.45. McKeown could reach those records at the upcoming World Cup finale in Budapest.
Gold medals, check. Elite times, check. So what exactly does McKeown have going against her as she pushes for another dominant backstroke showing at next year’s Paris Olympics?
History: swimmers in her position have missed out on the result McKeown will be aiming for.
First off, only one swimmer has ever repeated as Olympic titlist in the 100 back, American Natalie Coughlin, and that event has been on the Olympic program since the Games were first in Paris 99 years ago. It’s worth noting Coughlin had to work particularly hard and have some fortunate timing to win No. 2 in 2008 after Kirsty Coventry broke Coughlin’s world record in the semifinals.
Repeats have been slightly more common in the 200 back, only added to the Olympic slate in 1968, with Krisztina Egerszegi winning three-in-a-row in 1988, 1992 and 1996 and Coventry topping the podium in 2004 and 2008. But no winners of the double-double, with Egerszegi not entering the 100 back in 1996 despite swimming a medley relay leadoff time slightly faster than the gold-medal time in the individual race.
Kaylee McKeown at the 2023 World Championships — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
But the most daunting statistic that McKeown needs to overcome involves female swimmers hailing from her nation, one which consistently produces one of the world’s best swim teams. Only one Australian female swimmer has ever successfully defended an Olympic gold medal in swimming. Not since Dawn Fraser won three straight in the 100 free in 1956, 1960 and 1964 has a woman from Down Under pulled off the repeat. Most memorably, Susie O’Neill was heavily favored to repeat in the 200 butterfly in 2000, having set the world record at Australia’s Olympic Trials and having won gold in the 200 free one day earlier, but American Misty Hyman beat O’Neill in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history.
Shane Gould won three individual gold medals in 1972 but retired before she could pursue her goals any further. In recent years, stars such as Jodie Henry, Leisel Jones, Libby Trickett and Stephanie Rice were dominant at one stage but unable to sustain that moving forward. Rice, in particular, had a surprising fall, from gold medalist in both individual medley events in 2008, with a pair of world records to boot, to fourth (200 IM) and tied for sixth (400 IM) at the next Games in London.
No Australian female won individual gold at the 2012 or 2016 Games, but three swimmers won two titles each in 2021: McKeown in the backstroke events, Ariarne Titmus in the 200 and 400 freestyle and Emma McKeon in the 50 and 100 free. McKeon finished well outside the medals in both sprint free events at this summer’s World Championships, so her repeat chances appear low, with a new generation of sprint talent (including Aussies) and Sarah Sjostrom remaining a looming presence.
Titmus, meanwhile, won a highly-touted Worlds showdown in the 400 free, reclaiming the world record in the process, but she will again have her hands full with Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh next year in Paris. In that 400 free final, McIntosh had the only poor international final of her budding career, as she would rebound to win two individual gold medals and a bronze in the ensuing days. As for the 200 free, Titmus could have her hands full with rising Australian Mollie O’Callaghan, who broke the world record in the event in winning gold at Worlds.
It’s certainly plausible that Titmus could break the drought and defend one of her gold medals next year, but she is not in as strong a position as McKeown, the clear favorite in two different races.
The gap of only three years between Summer Olympics, thanks to the postponement of the Tokyo Games due to COVID-19, is the shortest ever, undoubtedly aiding the chances of McKeown (plus Titmus and McKeon) in their hopes of sustaining greatness long enough to secure the back-to-back. Perhaps the shorter length of the Olympic cycle would deserve an asterisk, but holding off a slew of hungry challengers to defend a gold medal is daunting, no matter the circumstances.
The world titles, world records and near-world records have put McKeown in a stronger position than any repeat-seeking Aussie since O’Neill. It would not be an upset akin to Hyman’s win over McNeill if McKeown cannot come through next year in Paris, not with the presence of Smith as the former world-record holder and a true rival to McKeown in both events, but McKeown will head to France in a position for an accomplishment 60 years in waiting.
